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The government forces have "finally defeated the LTTE militarily," said the president in a speech in Jordan where he was paying a visit.
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Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa speaks during the second day of the World Economic Forum annual meeting on the Middle East at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea May 16, 2009. |
Defense officials said earlier Saturday the military has sealed off the entire northeastern Mullaithivu coast and has circled the LTTE forces in a small jungle.
The rebels facing ultimate defeat at the hands of the government troops are bracing for a final mass scale suicide attempt against government troops, said a statement of the Sri Lankan Defense Ministry.
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This photograph released by the Sri Lankan military on May 15, 2009 shows what the army says is equipment they captured from Tamil Tiger rebels inside the 'No Fire Zone' where they have surrounded the rebels for the final battle in a quarter-century conflict. |
Whereabouts of the rebel leader Velupillai Prabakaran and other senior leaders have been much speculated.
But the military said Saturday that they are still trapped in the rebels' last hold of about 2 sq kms in the western sector of Karayamullivaikkal in the northeastern Mullaithivu district.
Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the military spokesman, said that some 20,000 civilians had crossed over to the government control during the last two and a half days.
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This photograph released by the Sri Lankan military on May 15, 2009 shows what the army says are civilians fleeing from the area inside the 'No Fire Zone' that is still held by the Tiger rebels. |
An explosives laden bus sent to attack the Army's 58 division Saturday morning was destroyed by the Army, Spokesman Nanayakkara said.
He said the rebels who face certain defeat are still trying to cause damage to the troops
The army's 58 and 59 divisions linked up on the Mullaithivu beach front early Saturday morning, according to the military.
Analysts said the government troops have thus taken control of the island's entire north and east coastal lines for the first time in the three-decade separatist armed war waged by the LTTE rebels.
This was to be the last phase in the final military victory for the government troops led by the Commander of the Army, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka.
Gen Fonseka's troops began its military campaign in mid 2006 by liberating the entire eastern province.
Their capture of the north began early January this year with the fall of the rebel administrative capital of Kilinochchi.
Military said the exodus of the remaining civilians trapped in the last rebel hold began on Thursday.
Some 9,900 people had crossed over to the government areas by Friday evening.
The LTTE rebels have been fighting for an independent homeland since the 1970s. It erupted into full-scale civil war in 1983 and the campaign cost more than 70,000 lives since the mid 1980s.